October 14, 2011 -- Land & Property Services (LPS) today announced its plan to deliver a programme of improved mapping for Northern Ireland.

Thanks to developing technologies and modern survey methods, such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), it is now possible to obtain more consistent and accurate standards of mapping data.

The Positional Improvement Project, which examines the accuracy of features of LPS Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) maps, will deliver significant improvements to the quality of current mapping, enabling its customers to provide more efficient and accurate service delivery.

Announcing the initiative, John Wilkinson, LPS Chief Executive said: "This initiative supports our vision to provide an integrated Land and Property Service. The quality of our mapping underpins many location based services and helps implement the NI Geographic Information Strategy. The project will future proof the LPS OSNI large-scale map data, bringing it into line with modern Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and help us deliver better quality data to our customers”.

A most significant benefit to customers will be the better relationship between LPS OSNI large-scale mapping and customers own GPS positioned information.

Mr Wilkinson continued: “Where customers, such as NI Water, NI Electricity and Telecoms are making increasing use of GPS technology to locate and map water pipes and cables, engagement with Positional Improvement becomes a vital investment for the future. The farming community will also benefit from more accurate field boundaries necessary for the accurate submission of EU funding grants”.

There are over 17,000 1:1250 and 1:2500 scale maps to be completed. It will take two years to complete the programme and two external specialist contractors, DSM GeoData and Blom UK have been commissioned to assist LPS with the work.

Ramesh Ananthakrishnan, Chief Executive of DSM GeoData said "We are extremely pleased to be working with LPS, the national mapping organisation for Northern Ireland. DSMGeodata are committed to delivering a high quality result which will help LPS with this very challenging task."

Simon Kraeter, Commercial Director of Blom UK also commented: “Blom has extensive experience with the challenges associated with Positional Improvement projects and we are proud that LPS approached us to carry out this work on what is such a key asset for industry, government and the whole community in Northern Ireland.”